Local golfers were on to the West Coast to take on the best young international golfers at the Callaway Junior World Golf Championships July 10-13 in San Diego.

Salil Ghamande and Hunter Dunagan played in the boys 13-14 tournament at Morgan Run Golf Club, while Eunice Yi played in the girls 15-17 group at Torrey Pines.

For the boys’ three-round competition, with 170 entries, Ghamande finished tied for 94th, shooting 16-over, while Dunagan tied for 99th at 17-over.

After two rounds of play, Yi was at 15-over and did not make the cut, which was limited to 32 players.

“It was a fun experience,” said Ghamande, who is an incoming freshman at Augusta Prep. “It was my first time playing it. I played pretty good. I just couldn’t make any putts. I played really well besides that. I guess a lot of people struggled, too, because most of the people I played with didn’t putt good at all.”

One of the biggest takeaways for all three was getting to play with the best competition from around the world.

“I didn’t really play the best,” said Yi, who enters her senior year at Lakeside. “It was a little disappointing, but I had a really cool experience here, like seeing other players from around the world.”

Ghamande definitely saw come of the world’s best junior golfers up close and personal.

“I played with a Colombian kid yesterday and he talked about how they play golf in Colombia and how he’s ranked third or fourth in the country,” Ghamande said. “The best part was playing with good competition every single day. I played with one of the kids that came in the top 10 one of the days and I played a practice round with the kid who came in third.”

All three got there before the tournament. Ghamande played a practice round at Torrey Pines and Yi explored San Diego.